One visit. That’s it!

I often read job search articles online. Not because I’m looking for a job, but because I’m fascinated with what people are willing to put up with during a job search. I’ve read about people returning to companies for third, fourth, even fifth round interviews. Why?

Interviewers typically want to meet during regular business hours. For people who have jobs, it is difficult to get out of work to go interview. How are you supposed to explain to your boss that you need to leave work at 2 pm? If you need to go to multiple interviews, you have to come up with different excuses. Or just call in sick or go home sick multiple times. How sick can one person be? Plus, when you call in sick, you won’t get that sick day pay when you eventually quit.

When I was looking for a job while employed, I’d insist on meeting all the pertinent interviewers in one visit. I’d rather take one day off than call in sick or make excuses to leave work multiple times. I’d always schedule interviews for either Monday or Friday, so that my current employer would simply think that I wanted a long weekend. A company should be able to get a feel for your candidacy for a position in one visit. If it can’t, it may want to review its interviewing process!

Another thing – make sure to get an itinerary beforehand of the people who’ll interview you. Read their LinkedIn profiles. Learn something about them. People like to talk about themselves.

For those of you who are job searching, follow my example. It’ll save you time and headaches. If the interviewing company will not accommodate you, don’t interview there. That company obviously does not care about its employees (or prospective employees).